In One Piece, as Hashirama Senju

[152] Season 2 || The Emerald City

Chapter 152: Season 2 || The Emerald City

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The calm sea mirrored the structures that towered over them. Dawn's light unveiled the artificial island better than the moon had last night; the crew aboard their small boat found a new perspective of beauty in this mystical presence.

The gentle lap of water against the hull and the distant cries of seabirds had woven themselves into the fabric of the morning, no longer novel but comfortably routine.

The vibrant blue sky was a breathtaking contrast to the skyscrapers of green within the glass dome city. The very artificial-looking dome island, as well as its black stone base, had lost the initial sense of horror it had on the crew during the nighttime. Now it was simply beautiful for the mortal sight.

"Look, there are barely noticeable holes in the black base, aligned and positioned at a calculated distance from one another."

"Looks like hidden canons to me."

The members of the crew proficient in Observation Haki noticed. Thanks to their sudden departure, they hadn't managed to grab binoculars.

The Senju Pirates' now occupied a larger boat than what Hashirama had created at first. Across the night, he made it large enough so that it wasn't too cramped for their large number. Although it wasn't as big as their true ship, it was good enough.

This boat allowed them to encircle this island and its seemingly endless radius. Even after an entire night's watch, they had not encircled it once. They were searching for a gate to enter, but their prolonged observation had bore no fruit as of yet.

"Tsunade, be ready to punch cannonballs if they do fire," Vivi said to Tsunade and looked behind. "Is Shirara up yet?"

"Not yet," Robin whispered back, shaking her head. She was sitting on the floor, with his head resting on her lap. Her devil fruit multiplied her arms over her head to make an umbrella to block the sun.

It seemed his chakra was low from both the fight with the God's Knights, as well as his injury. His hands that were sliced down to his wrists were yet to regenerate, but his chakra was continuing to heal it constantly every second, even now, growing in output use the more it failed to accomplish. So even he had run out of chakra.

A part of Robin blamed herself for this. Whenever she got too close to something, bad luck struck it. Wasn't this the same? Was she really a demon child? But it was his words exactly that made her calm; even if she was cursed, his presence nullified that. Otherwise, how were they fine even after encountering such a tragedy?

"Looks like he has a weakness after all," Marianne said, though she didn't mean it in a bad way. She looked at him with pity. "I see that power of his in a double-edged sword if he can't heal. It will keep trying to heal him until it runs out and kills him."

Tsunade had to put him down to sleep with a karate chop on his neck. Of course, he had asked for it.

The girls stared at him for a minute, until two figures in the sky caused them to turn toward them. Mikita and Nami flew to the boat with annoyed looks on their faces.

"No way in?" Tsunade asked, judging by their expression.

"None at all," Mikita shook her head.

"It's weird. We don't think there are even any people living there." Nami added.

"Huh," Tsunade frowned. "This isn't nice. What if the gate is something that can be opened only from the inside? But since the people in there are... gone, could it be that the city is impossible to enter?"